The Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center in New York City may be the most famous lit tree – but it wasn’t the first...
The first known electrically illuminated Christmas tree was the creation of Edward H. Johnson, an associate of inventor Thomas Edison. While he was vice president of the Edison Electric Light Company, he had Christmas tree light bulbs especially made, just for him. He proudly displayed his Christmas tree, which was hand-wired with 80 red, white and blue electric incandescent light bulbs the size of walnuts, on December 22, 1882 at his home on Fifth Avenue in New York City.
The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree in New York has been lit since 1931 – but those lights weren’t electric until 1956. This year, the Norway spruce will be illuminated by 30,000 environmentally friendly LED lights on five miles of wire, and crowned by a Swarovski crystal star – a far cry from Edward H. Johnson’s first electric tree.
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